The art of writing is not for everyone to master because it involves a good sense of clarity, accuracy, and transparency. The scope of the problem is connected not only with correct grammatical structures, but with recent tendencies of imitating writing styles of famous philosophers and writers whose language is really sophisticated. However, inheriting styles are not always relevant because learners can be misled by the presence of specific terms, difficult constructions, and excessive use of adjectives. In this regard, it is still necessary to define what constitutes good academic writing and what common mistakes writers make while striving to perfect their writing skills.
Kelly (1999) reports on bad writing crisis reveals that the main pillars of good academic writing involve clarity, accuracy, and limpidity. A writer should strike the balance between using complicated language and structure and transparent words and phrases. The narration should consistent, simple, and comprehensible and there should not be ponderous constructions and technical vocabulary event if the text refers to a scientific genre.
Understanding and clarity are the main requirements to brilliant academic writing. Additionally, due to the fact that language is constantly changing, writers should carefully follow the recent tendencies of academic writing. In other words, students should not “find themselves on the fact track to academic oblivion” (Kelly, 1999). The same point is held by Smith (1999) who believes that bad writing is the result of strict following the writing traditions of Continental philosophers.
Regarding the above-presented consideration, it is not difficult to define the main attributes of bad writing. In the article called Robert Rector: Bad Writing Gets Its Just Reward, the author provides evident examples of bad writing (Anonymous, 2010). The extracts were crammed with obscure and unnecessary constructions that impose more ambiguity on the actual meaning of a phrase. Analyzing these pieces, it is possible to assume that bad writing can be identified as ambiguous, obscure, and overwhelmed with irrelevant words and constructions that distort the overall meaning. Kelly (1999) and Smith (2010) have also concluded that the most common mistakes made by writers is charging the sentence with sophisticated terminology in an effort to make their language more advanced and professional. In fact, such feeble attempts look like a parody on the writing process.
The majority of contemporary writers are prone to using complicated structures and difficult language to make their writing more professional and advanced. However, in the quest of sophisticated writing, they lose the most important detail of good academic writing – the very idea (Smith, 1999). Indeed, writers ignore the actual purpose of writing that serve to render various conceptions that should be understandable to a particular target audience. Otherwise, the value of writing will be lost.
Therefore, in order to become an outstanding writer, it is not necessarily to use complicated terms and vocabulary, but be more concerned with the context and meaning of a phrase. In other words, writers should strive to be clear, accurate, and sharp, they should deviate from the actual meaning of a phrase just to impress their readers with the richness of the language. On the contrary, they should find a golden medium between those two extremes – language proficiency and semantics. In addition, writers should have a good commander of writing styles in order to present their ideas in an appropriate way to a pertinent audience.
Reference List
Anonymous. (2010). Robert Rector: Bad Writing Gets Its Just Reward. San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Web.
Kelly, R. (1999). Bad Blood over Bad Writing. Irish Times. Web.
Smith, D. (1999). Academic: When the Writing is Bad, Ideas Get Lost. The New York Times. Web.